Shining a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. Writer Beware is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing

Problems cited include late or missing royalties and royalty statements, broken marketing promises, and difficulty reaching or getting responses from the owner, Colleen Nye. To explain these issues, Ms. Nye has reportedly offered bizarre and elaborate personal excuses that authors tell me they believe are either made-up or exaggerated. (For an example of the kinds of complaints I've received, see here.)

Frustrated with the situation, a group of seven Blue Deco authors took the unusual step of creating an online petition to demand payment and reversion of their rights. (Given that Blue Deco only had 16 authors, including Ms. Nye herself, that's a big hit, over 40% of its list.)

I'm told that attorneys from the Authors Guild also contacted Ms. Nye. To her credit, she has been responsive. All the petitioning writers have received rights reversions, and all but two have been paid (both believe they have sales, but Ms. Nye says they don't; they've decided to chalk it up as a loss and move on).

To any regular readers of this blog, all of this will be very familiar. Blue Deco's shortfalls aren't unusual; in fact they're endemic to the small press world. Often the problems don't stem from dishonesty or malfeasance, but simply from the fact that the people in charge don't know how to run a business.

The Blue Deco story also illustrates why it can be risky to get involved with publishers that are primarily one- or two-person ventures. With the best will in the world, a single personal crisis or health problem can derail the entire company.

CHRISTIAN FAITH PUBLISHING

I get a lot of questions and complaints about a lot of different pay-to-play publishers and publishing services. But there are certain companies I hear about over and over--all of them savvy, well-packaged outfits that aggressively recruit authors with slick websites, print and digital advertising, and direct solicitation. One of these is Christian Faith Publishing.

As its name indicates, Christian Faith Publishing targets Christian writers: "to discover and market unknown Christian-based authors who aspire to craft the greatest spiritual impact imaginable via the written word." It describes itself as "a full-service book publisher"--a misleading claim because, in fact, authors must make "a minimal investment". How minimal? Well, that's not really explained.

While the investment required of our accepted authors to bring a book to the world-wide market varies based upon the intricacies of each book, all of our authors are fortunate enough to undertake the production, distribution and marketing of their book via a short-term, affordable monthly installment plan which is to be recovered by the author from book sale proceeds before we are entitled to any royalty compensation whatsoever!

Writers be warned: this kind of coyness on pricing nearly always indicates excessive fees. I've heard from authors who were asked for anywhere from $3,500-$5,000 up front; for $495 up front plus installments of $295 per month for 10 months; for $950 up front plus installments of $380 for 10 months. Marketing is an add-on: for instance, $3,400 for a package that includes a "High-Definition Video Trailer", a press release, and a page on CFP's website. (This is not marketing. It's junk. It's not worth one cent, let alone four figures.)

What do authors get for these enormous fees? Basically, an assisted self-publishing-style service that's little different from the packages offered by companies like Outskirts Press or the imprints in the Author Solutions family. Naive writers may not realize this, though, because CFP is careful not only to style itself a "publisher", but to promise that it is "very selective" and that authors will have "availability" in "retail...sales outlets". Its salespeople call themselves "Literary Agents." Its TV commercials and web ads never mention money. And though its website does disclose that authors must pay, this is buried in the FAQ section and thus easy to miss. Put these misleading elements together with the fact that Christian writers are more likely to trust a company that self-identifies as Christian, and you have a perfect honey trap.

Does this business model remind you of anything? Maybe a certain Oklahoma-based Christian vanity publisher that recently went bust amid thousands of complaints of non-payment and other malfeasance, and whose owners were subsequently charged with multiple felony counts, including embezzlement?

If so, it may not surprise you to learn that CFP's founder and President, Chris Rutherford, is a Tate Publishing alumnus. He has held varioustitles with the company, the most recent of which, per his LinkedIn profile, is Chief Business Development Officer (though note the strategic omission of Tate's name):

Rutherford seems to have left Tate in the fall of 2013--at which point there were plenty of complaints and indications of problems at the company, though nothing like what started coming out in 2016--and started CFP in 2014. CFP doesn't seem to have published anything until mid-2015; it put out just eight books that year, according to Amazon, but ramped up production in 2016, which is when I started getting questions about it.

Unlike Tate, CFP seems to deliver what its clients pay for. Authors searching for positive reviews will have no problem finding them: at the BBB, for instance, or the abundant testimonials on CFP's own website.

However, like all vanity publishers, CFP relies on misdirection and ignorance to recruit authors who may not realize they're not actually signing up with a "full-service book publisher", or that they could get what CFP offers elsewhere at a lower cost, or that, whatever else it may be, CFP's declared Christian mission is a form of advertising to which Christian authors are uniquely vulnerable.

Christian authors, take note: there are as many schemes, scams, and deceptive services in Christian publishing as there are in other markets. Just because an individual or company proclaims its faith doesn't mean it will treat you fairly or offer you a worthwhile service at a reasonable price. In fact, in terms of marketing and distribution, faith is beside the point. Companies like CFP offer only junk marketing, and use the exact same distribution channels as everyone else.

I very nearly signed up with these guys. They are very, very smooth-talking and talk about God and all. I sent them my manuscript, because they said they are selective about what they publish, they have Christian standards. no cursing, violence etc. Of Course, they accepted my ms, then sent me a contract to sign, for a lot of money. But I didn't go ahead with it, because I had 'bad feeling' about it. Intuition, I guess. Too bad, because they really were very kind and helpful, I had a long conversation about my book, and they seemed genuinely interested.

" Marketing is an add-on: for instance, $3,400 for a package that includes a "High-Definition Video Trailer", a press release, and a page on CFP's website. (This is not marketing. It's junk. It's not worth one cent, let alone four figures.)"

My book has just been released by CFP and all of this was included for no charge on the contract. When you calculate the pricing against what you would have to pay to hire professional editors and designers, their pricing isn't really that far off. And they are careful to make sure you know everything up front.

For me it was worth some money to go through the experience with them and see how it works. I think I could now go to Create Space or Ingram Spark and do it myself. But I have not found the experience to be like you describe here. The internet has brought a new era upon us and the old assumptions of the past are falling by the wayside. I know that some people have been taken for a ride by vanity publishers. But it isn't really fair to paint everyone with the same brush. Time will tell where they go, but I own all the rights to my book, and even if they went under, I would just carry on.

I suspect that some of the earlier difficulties were growing pains of a new company trying to get into the right slot.

A lot will depend on your publishing specialist, of course. If you hit a deadbeat, then you will have problems. Mine was okay (Brian Greenwalt) and I have no complaints.

Stay away from Christian Faith Publishing they have stolen all of my royalties and according to Amanda Beary that there is NO sales report and not one book was sold and that is a load of crap..Also AMAZON leaked my E-Book on line and so far a FRAUD company has free access to my E-Book for free..Customers sign up with this fraud company and pay 50 dollars a month to see my E-books and movies for FREE...According to the TECHS so far 50 thousand people have seen my E-Book for FREE...Christian faith publishing knows about this and they are not doing nothing about it...And why??? Well it's because they do not care about their Authors they are a bunch of crooks stay away form this company...

I still question some of the comments about Christian Faith Publishers in this thread. I found the company to be upfront and they have met their commitments. However, as is true of all self-publisher companies, a lot is left on your shoulders. If you need to have a lot of hand holding, etc. then self-publishing isn't for you. I think most of the disappointments vocalized here and in other places about various companies are the result of people having expectations that no company could meet. I've been doing some research on self-published books, and the fact is that most of them don't sell because they aren't really worth reading.

I did fall for this company back in 2016, the YouTube trailer was good, but the rest of their services were misleading at best. The professional editing was done once, and I had to read the book I wrote 5 times to catch the rest of the spelling errors. I ask for a final edit and they told me it would cost extra. Since published, I have still found errors. What they sold me on, is that they would release my book to 3000 media outlets, I haven't gotten the list of those outlets to this day. I spent 750 dollars on a radio add campaign and only sold two books. There getting the receipts from people who bought books that month. Once we prove I sold more than two books with radio adds, the lawsuit from the radio station for hurting there credibility will give my lawsuit teeth.

I am not a writer, but I wanted to put my journal into a book in order to give to my family and friends to explain to them why I am no longer a Mormon and why I am now a Christian. It is called: Finding God's Truth. The problems I had with CFP were:

1. Many of my pictures turned out dark. They did fix some of them.

2. I paid $3,000 for them to edit and produce my book. But, I did most of the editing myself. I kept finding mistakes that I felt they should have caught. Again, I am not a writer but I was paying for them to find the mistakes. There are still some small grammatical errors in my book.

3. Again, I did not do this to make money, but to inform my family and friends why I am no longer Mormon. But, CFP promised I would receive royalties from any books sold. They put my book on Amazon. I know a few people who ordered my book, yet I never received any royalties. I bought one book off Amazon through the publisher and I never received a royalty. I did notice other companies were selling my book. I wrote one of them and they said they acquired my book from a wholesaler. I realized, all this meant was that I will never receive a royalty from my book, but other people will make money off of me.

I feel like CFP is a scam. Yes, they will produce your book. Yes, you will receive some copies of your book. No, you won't receive any royalties. It has been over two years since my book was put on Amazon and I have never received any royalties. But, Yes, other people will use your work to make money. I would like the rights to my book back so that I can find a real editor and publisher and for the publisher (CFP) to be unable to no longer sell my book through Amazon.

Thanks for your comment. I'm so sorry you had what sounds like a very unsatisfactory experience with Christian Faith Publishing.

Many companies like CFP have a dollar threshold that you have to meet before they will release royalties. For instance, unless your royalties due are $100 or more, they're rolled over into the next royalty period until you get to $100. Some companies deliberately set the threshold high, because they know that typical sales are low, and being able to roll royalties over repeatedly to the next royalty period reduces the number of payments they have to make.

As to getting your rights back from CFP...check your contract to see if there's language allowing you to terminate the contract with notice to CFP. Companies like CFP often do provide such clauses in their contracts. You won't get your money back, but you will at least be able to make a new start.

And feel free to email me directly if you have questions: beware @ sfwa.org

Hi Millie, I think there are several things you need to understand. First, Ingram only calculates royalties a quarter at a time. If the royalties add up to less than $20 they are "banked" until the next quarter. Second, most of the people who say they are selling your book do not stock copies but sell them as Print on Demand. So there are no royalties until they actually sell a book. Third, you can order copies of your book at 50% off. But you won't receive royalties on those books. And fourth, your initial contract with CFP is for two years. At that point you can ask to have the project back and you can take it where ever you want. You publishing specialist would tell you all of this, if you asked. And it's all in your contract. I know that the editing is one of their weak areas, and I'm not defending that. If I ever use their services again, I will hire an third party editor. But it isn't fair to blame them of things that aren't true. I don't believe that they try to cheat you. But they do take advantage of a situation where you need someone to help with publishing a book and don't know how to do it. They charge for this service. That is normal. Most people who need to use a service like CFP will never make any money. If their project is one that will make money, they won't need CFP. That may not always be true, but it normally is. So go and talk to them. Ask to talk to the owner if you want. They are small enough that you can do that.